Anaerobic digestion

StormFisher Environmental acquires Harvest Power’s Ontario anaerobic digester

StormFisher Environmental Ltd. has announced it has acquired the London Energy Garden from Harvest Ontario Partners Ltd. The facility is an anaerobic digester that turns organic waste from southwestern Ontario into energy and natural fertilizers.

“We are excited to invest new capital and enhance operations at the London Energy Garden,” says Chris Guillon, vice president of StormFisher Environmental. “These developments open up even more opportunities to serve the organic waste processing needs of the region.”

“The facility is in good hands with StormFisher Environmental,” says Chris Kasper, CEO of Harvest Power. “Their team was involved in the original design of the site.”

Blue Sphere completes $3 million financing round

Charlotte, North Carolina-based Blue Sphere Corp., a clean energy company that acquires, develops, manages and owns waste-to-energy projects globally, announced it closed on a financing round of $3 million Dec. 23, 2015. The notes have a face value of $3 million, and after commissions and selling expenses, the company netted $2.672 million. The terms of the financing will be more particularly defined in an 8K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company worked with the Maxim Group, a New York-based investment banking firm to market and close the private placement of notes. This financing at the corporate level will allow the company to further focus on what it calls its large pipeline of acquisition targets in Italy as well as further development opportunities in the United States.

EPA survey shows $271 billion needed for nation’s wastewater infrastructure

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released a survey contending that $271 billion is needed to maintain and improve the nation’s wastewater infrastructure, including pipes that carry wastewater to treatment plants, technology that treats the water and methods for managing stormwater runoff.

The survey is a collaboration between EPA, states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories.

“The only way to have clean and reliable water is to have infrastructure that is up to the task,” says Joel Beauvais, EPA’s acting deputy assistant administrator for water. “Our nation has made tremendous progress in modernizing our treatment plants and pipes in recent decades, but this survey tells us work remains.”

EPA launched the Water Infrastructure and Resiliency Finance Center in January 2015 to work with states and communities to identify financing strategies for drinking water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure.

The center recently selected regional Environmental Finance Centers to help communities across the country develop sustainable “how-to-pay” solutions to meet environmental goals. This financial expertise and technical assistance has been developed to help communities make informed funding decisions for resilient infrastructure projects that best meet local needs.

EPA also offers financial assistance to address the types of infrastructure needs covered in the survey. The Clean Water State Revolving Fund has provided more than $111 billion in low-interest loans since its inception in 1987, with $5.8 billion in FY 2015 alone. Grant funding is available through the Alaska Native Villages and Rural Communities program, the Clean Water Indian Set-Aside, and the U.S.-Mexico Border Water Infrastructure program.

The $271 billion is primarily for projects needed within five years. The survey reported the following infrastructure needs:

• secondary wastewater treatment: $52.4 billion to meet secondary treatment standards.;
• advanced wastewater treatment: $49.6 billion to provide upgrades so treatment plants can attain a level more protective than secondary treatment; and
• recycled water distribution: $6.1 billion for conveyance and further treatment of wastewater for reuse.

More information on the EPA report is available at www.epa.gov/cwns.